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Index

Armenia

The Urartu Civilisation

Victory for Independence

Artashisian Dynasty on the Armenian Throne

Armenia caught between Rome and the Arsacids

The Acceptance of Christianity

Defending Christianity

Armenia Under the Bagratouni Dynasty

Cilicia - the New Armenia

Armenia Under Turanian Rule

The Renaissance or the Resurrection of Armenia

The Eastern Question

Russia in the Caucasus

The Armenian Question

Battle on Two Fronts

Tsarist Russia Against the Armenians

The Revolution of the Young Turks and the Armenian People on the Eve of World War I

The First World War

The Resurrection of Armenia

Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

- Armenia on the Road to Independence, 1918

Eastern Armenia

Western Armenia

"The Fateful Years" (1914-1917)

"Hopes and Emotions" (March-October, 1917)

The Bolshevik Revolution and Armenia

Transcaucasia Adrift (November, 1917

Dilemmas (March-April, 1918)

War and Independence (April-May, 1918)

The Republics of Georgia, Azerbaijan, and Armenia

The Suppliants (June-October, 1918)

In conclusion

Soviet Armenia

The Second Independent Republic of Armenia

Epilogue

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Islam and the Arab Empire



During the 7th century an event took place which came to shake the entire Middle East and strongly influence the people who lived there, among them the Armenians: the emergence of Islam and the sub-sequential creation of the Arab Empire.

Since this power assumed an important role during several centuries in the eastern part of the world Armenia was inevitably in contact with it, first as a part of the Arab Empire, later as an independent nation under the rule of the Bagratouni dynasty and finally during the crusades in the New Armenia (Cilicia).

When the prophet Mohammed began his age of enlightenment, the Arabs lived in the most dangerous part of the Middle East, the Arabian Peninsula. The Sasanids, who followed the tenets of Mazdeism, which they tried to force upon the Armenians in vain, had control over Persia, parts of Armenia and Mesopotamia. The rest of the Middle East (Asia Minor and a part of Armenia, Assyria, Palestine and Egypt) was under Byzantine rule. It is important to note that at that time the majority of the population in Syria, Palestine and Egypt were Christians, but members of the Monophysical faith (under the Jacobin in Syria and the Coptic Church in Egypt) and were therefore regarded as heathens by the Eastern Roman Church, which sometimes even undertook armed conflicts against them.

At the time of Mohammed's death (632), the Arabs had only managed to unite their own land, the Arabian Peninsula. It was the successors of the prophet, first the caliph Abu Bakr and then Omar who organized the great victories of Islam.

The Arabs, under the Caliphs Abu Bakr and Omar, were able to tale advantage of the prevailing situation and conquer the Middle East. The weakened Eastern Roman and Sasanid Empires had exhausted much of their assets on long wars between Emperor Heraclius and Shah-n-shah (king of kings) Khosro II, which paved the way for the Arab advance towards Europe. Moreover, the discontent of the Monophysical Churches in Syria and Egypt which were being persecuted by the Byzantine Church, and the decreased influence of Mazdeism in Persia due to the emergence of the Mani religion, all aided and abetted the Arab cause. The armies of Byzantine and Persia were defeated by the Arab armies who were led by a "divine guidance". In 634 the final battle of Yarmuk (near Jordan) took place, which resulted in the loss of Syria, Palestine and Egypt for Byzantine. The Arabs ruled over these areas from 634 to 642 25 During the same period the Arabs attacked Persia and after defeating the elite forces of Persia at Kadessia, the Arabs, led by general Rostam Farrokhzad, conquered the country (637). In 642 the conquest of Persia was completed. During the following years (643-708) the Arabs conquered the entire of North Africa. Finally they pushed across to Spain, but shortly after that the Arabs advances faltered and, according to Pirenne, "the walls of Constantinople from one side, in year 717, and the soldiers of Charles Martell from the other side, in year 732, defeated this enormous assault which had squeezed Christianity."

From 661 to 750 the centre of the Arab world was moved from Mecca to Damascus by a new dynasty of caliphs, the Ommiads. During the reign of these caliphs the Arab Empire stretched from Turkistan at one end to North Africa and a part of Spain at the other. In the year 750 the capital of the Arab Empire and of Islam was moved to Baghdad, where the Abbasid caliphs succeeded the Ommiads. Within this dynasty the Arab Empire reached its peak and also began its decline. Baghdad, where the caliph Haroun al-Rashid ruled, competed in its enormous wealth and influential reach against Byzantine.